Utilikilts sometimes offers screwups at reduced rates- They just posted something about it on their DeFaceBook page.
If you're looking for a more unique look, you might consider trying what I did and order the "vegan" model, which comes in "raw" duck material without the leather hammerloop, and dyeing it to your own specs. (Dharma Trading Company has good rates on all necessary materials, and while there are a few steps to the process it's not too difficult or painful.)
Or you could try what the inventor of Utilikilts did- Get some old combat pants from a surplus store and modify 'em yourself. Before my penny jar was full enough to get that UK I wore a homemade prototype that wasn't half bad AND had the advantage of being a one-off.
Try making a sporran, too!

robotland wrote:Utilikilts sometimes offers screwups at reduced rates- They just posted something about it on their DeFaceBook page.If you're looking for a more unique look, you might consider trying what I did and order the "vegan" model, which comes in "raw" duck material without the leather hammerloop, and dyeing it to your own specs. (Dharma Trading Company has good rates on all necessary materials, and while there are a few steps to the process it's not too difficult or painful.)Or you could try what the inventor of Utilikilts did- Get some old combat pants from a surplus store and modify 'em yourself. Before my penny jar was full enough to get that UK I wore a homemade prototype that wasn't half bad AND had the advantage of being a one-off.Try making a sporran, too!

My former boss at the costume shop I worked at was a Scotsman, and we hd a whole cadre of formal kilts (jacket to socks to sporrans) for rent. I won't get into my brief stint with the Picts in the S.C.A...

Maybe. Maybe not. There is also a nautical version relating to how many yards of canvas are set, and another tale relating to yards of concrete. The actual origin of "the whole nine yards" is hotly debated by scholars with nothing better to do.

"First, it needs to be stated up front that no one knows what the origin of the phrase the whole nine yards is. Anyone who claims to have such knowledge is almost assuredly wrong. We just donâ€™t know what the nine yards refers to. There are probably more unsubstantiated explanations floating about for this phrase than for any other and most have absolutely no evidence to support them.....

It is often claimed that the nine yards is a reference to the amount of ammunition carried in a World War II fighter.....

Another common explanation is that the nine yards is a reference to the capacity of ready-mix concrete trucks.....

Scottish kilts are often suggested as the inspiration. Allegedly, nine yards of cloth would be used in the making of a kilt....

The amount of dirt in a large burial plot;

The number of properties, or yards, in a standard city block in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Levittown, (pick your city);

The amount of cloth used in a burial shroud;

The capacity of coal trucks

The number of yards on a square rigged sailing ship (yards being the horizontal poles that hold the sails), even though it was not uncommon for such ships to have eighteen yards.

One final possibility is that it derives from American football, but was originally intended to be ironic. To go the whole nine yards was to fall just short of the goal of ten yards.

In summary, this is just one of those idiomatic phrases that defy explanation. This may not be satisfying, but it is not uncommon in English. "

The saying "gave 'em the whole nine yards" came from WWII. Fighter pilots planes were loaded with 27 feet of ammunition or nine yards. When a pilot fired all 27 feet of ammo at a target, they got the whole nine yards.

Weebdog wrote:The saying "gave 'em the whole nine yards" came from WWII. Fighter pilots planes were loaded with 27 feet of ammunition or nine yards. When a pilot fired all 27 feet of ammo at a target, they got the whole nine yards.

The earliest known citation of the phrase in print is from 1964, which argues strongly against any of the supposed mediaeval, Victorian or even World War II origins.

anyone who puts forward an explanation of an origin for 'the whole nine yards' which dates it to before the 1960s has to explain the lack of a printed record of it prior to 1964. If, to take the most commonly repeated version for instance, the phrase comes from the length of WWII machine gun belts, why is there no printed account of that in the thousands of books written about the war and the countless millions of newspaper editions published throughout the 1950s and 60s? The idea that it pre-dates the war and goes back to the 19th century or even the Middle Ages is even less plausible.

What I am sure of is that the phrase wasn't in wide circulation before 1961 - which tends to rule out many of the suggested sources. Why? In May 1961, the American athlete Ralph Boston broke the world long jump record with a jump of 27 feet 1/2 inch. No one had previously jumped 27 feet. This was big news at the time and widely reported. Surely the feat cried out for this headline?:

"Boston goes the whole nine yards"

And yet, not a single journalist worldwide came up with that line, which is missing from all newspaper archives. The phrase may have been coined before 1961, but it certainly wasn't then known to that most slang-aware of groups - newspaper journalists.

As has been said- anyone claiming to know where this came from is wrong. No-one knows where it originated.

TomServo wrote:Having MADE kilts, I know how much fabric is needed. Utilikilts are great, but lacking, IMHO. If you need 9 yards, you need to lose some weight.IMHO

That's stupid. If you use 8 or 9 yards, you're simply being old-school/authentic. It has nothing to do with size. Kilts served a variety of purposes back in the day - mostly as a blanket. The modern-day kilt that's more like a skirt didn't happen until the 1700s.

I bought pink and green camo tulle the other day, to make MyLarry a tutu. I have camo pockets cut out of his old uniforms. Hmmm..... I could make the real tutu type, with ruffles sewn to a waistband, not strips tied to an elastic waist. Hmmm. Perhaps a leather belt for the waistband. Hmmmm.